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'The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism' by Max Weber (1905)

A selection from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber, 1905.

Note: this work has seen a recent growing interest in China recently, which some western commentators have attributed, along with the growth of Christianity in China, as part of an attempt to 'learn the secret of the west success' (to borrow Nial Fergusans phrase), just as the interest in the 1980's among American corporate elites of the work of the 16th century Sumari Book of FiveRings was to learn the secrets of the success of their Japanese counterparts and thus get the upper-hand over them in the board room dealings).

[Work in Progress]Part I

The Problem

Chapter I

Religious Affiliation and Social Stratification

A glance at the occupational statistics of any country of
mixed religious composition brings to light with remarkable frequency a
situation which has several times provoked discussion in the Catholic
press and literature [editors note: as far back as the 17th century in
fact]... , namely, the fact that business leaders and owners of capital,
as well as the higher grads of skilled labour, and even more the higher
technically and commercially trained personnel of modern enterprises,
are overwhelmingly Protestant. ....what
has often been forgotten, that the Reformation meant not the
elimination of the Church’s control over everyday life, but rather the
substitution of a new form of control for the previous one. It meant the
repudiation of a control which was very lax, at that time scarcely
perceptible in practice, and hardly more than formal, in favour of a
regulation of the whole of conduct which, penetrating to all departments
of private and public life, was infinitely burdensome and earnestly
enforced.

On superficial analysis... one might be tempted to express the differrence by saying that the greater other-wordliness of Catholicism, the ascetic character of its highest ideals, must have brought up its adherents to a greater indifference toward the good things of this world. Such an explanation fits the popular tendency in the judgement of both religions. On the Protestant side it is used as a basis of criticism of those... ascetic ideals of the Catholic way of life, while the Catholics answer with the accusation that materialism results from the secularization of all ideals through Protestantism.

...the supposed conflict between other-worldliness, asceticism, and ecclesiastical piety on the one side, and participation in capitalistic acquisition on the other, might actually turn out to be an intimate relationship. If any inner relationship
between certain expressions of the old Protestant spirit and modern
capitalistic culture is to be found, we must attempt to find it, for
better or worse, not in its alleged more or less materialistic or at
least anti-ascetic joy of living, but in its purely religious
characteristics. Montesquieu says (Espirit des Lois, Book XX, chap. 7)
of the English that they "had progressed the farthest of all peoples of
the world in three important things: in piety, in commerce, and in
freedom."

Chapter IIThe Spirit of Capitalism

"Remember, that time is money."

"Remember, that money is of the prolific, generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more, and so on."

"He that is known to pay punctually and exactly to the time he promises, may at any time, and on any occasion, raise all the money his friends can spare. This is sometimes of great use."

"He that idly loses five shillings' worth of time, loses five shillings, and might as prudently throw away five shillings into the sea."

"He that loses five shillings, not only loses that sum, but all the advantage that might be made by turning it in dealing, which by the time that a young man becomes old, will amount to a considerable sum."

It is Benjamin Franklin who preaches to us in these sentences, the same which Ferdinand Kurnberger satirizes in his clever and malicious Picture of American Culture as the supposed confession of faith of the Yankee. That it is the spirit of capitalism which here speaks in characteristic fashion, no one will doubt... . The peculiarity of this philosophy of avarice appears to be the ideal of the honest man of recognized credit, and above all the idea of a duty of the individual toward the increase of his capital, which is assumed as an end in itself. The capitalistic economy of the present
day is an immense cosmos into which the individual is born, and which
presents itself to him, at least as an individual, as an unalterable
order of things in which he must live. It forces the individual, in so
far as he is involved in the system of market relationships, to conform
to capitalistic rules of action.Thus the capitalism of to-day, which has
come to dominate economic life, educates and selects the economic
subjects which it needs through a process of economic survival of the
fittest.A state of mind such as that expressed
in the passages we have quoted from Franklin, and which called forth the
applause of a whole people, would both in ancient times and in the
Middle Ages 12 have been proscribed as the lowest sort of avarice and as
an attitude entirely lacking in self-respect. It is, in fact, still
regularly thus looked upon by all those social groups which are least
involved in or adapted to modern capitalistic conditions.

A
man does not "by nature" wish to earn more and more money, but simply to
live as he is accustomed to live and to earn as much as is necessary
for that purpose. Wherever modern capitalism has begun its work of
increasing its intensity, it has encountered the immensely stubborn
resistance of this leading trait of pre-capitalistic labour.

...we
shall see that at the beginning of modern times it was by no means the
capitalistic entrepreneurs of the commercial aristocracy, who were
either the sole or the predominant bearers of the attitude we have here
called the spirit of capitalism. 23 It was much more the rising strata
of the lower industrial classes.

The people filled with the
spirit of capitalism to-day tend to be indifferent, if not hostile, to
the Church. The thought of the pious boredom of paradise has little
attraction for their active natures; religion appears to them as a means
of drawing people away from labour in this world. If you ask them what
is the meaning of their restless activity, why they are never satisfied
with what they have, thus appearing so senseless to any purely worldly
view of life, they would perhaps give the answer, if they know any at
all: “to provide for my children and grandchildren”. But more often and,
since that motive is not peculiar to them, but was just as effective
for the traditionalist [pre-capitalistic], more correctly, simply: that
business with its continuous work has become a necessary part of their
lives. That is in fact the only possible motivation, but it at the same
time expresses what is, seen from the view-point of personal happiness,
so irrational about this sort of life, where a man exists for the sake
of his business, instead of the reverse.Of course, the desire for
the power and recognition which the mere fact of wealth brings plays its
part. When the imagination of a whole people has once been turned
toward purely quantitative bigness, as in the United States, this
romanticism of numbers exercises an irresistible appeal to the...
business men.

Whoever does not adapt his manner of life to the conditions of capitalistic success must go under... .

...that
the conception of money-making as an end in itself to which people were
bound, as a calling, was contrary to the ethical feelings of whole
epochs, it is hardly necessary to prove.

An ethical attitude like that of Benjamin Franklin would have been simply unthinkable.

It
might... seem that the development of the spirit of capitalism is best
understood as part of the development of rationalism as a whole, and
could be deduced from the fundamental position of rationalism on the
basic problems of life. In the process Protestantism would only have to
be considered in so far as it had formed a stage prior to the
development of a purely rationalistic philosophy.

It will be
our task to find out whose intellectual child the particular concrete
form of rational thought was, from which the idea of a calling and the
devotion to labour in the calling has grown, which is, as we have seen,
so irrational from the standpoint of purely eudæmonistic self-interest,
but which has been and still is one of the most characteristic elements
of our capitalistic culture.Chapter IIILuther's Conception of the Calling...at least one thing was unquestionably
new [in the Reformation]: the valuation of the fulfilment of duty in
wordly affairs as the highest form which the moral activity of the
individual could assume. This it was which inevitably gave every-day
worldly activity a religious significance, and which first created the
conception of a calling in this sense. [...] The only way of living
acceptably to God was not to surpass worldly morality in monastic
asceticism, but solely through the fulfilment of the obligations imposed
upon the individual by his position in the world. That was his calling.The monastic life is not only quite
devoid of value as a means of justification before God, but he [Luther]
also looks upon its renunciation of the duties of this world as the
product of selfishness, withdrawing from temporal obligations.That this moral justification of worldly
activity was one of the most important results of the Reformation,
especially of Luther's part in it, is beyond doubt, and may even be
considered a platitude. 9 This attitude is worlds removed from the deep
hatred of Pascal, in his contemplative moods, for all worldly activity,
which he was deeply convinced could only be understood in terms of
vanity or low cunning.Part IIThe Practical Ethics of the Ascetic Branches of ProtestantismChapter IV

The Religious Foundations of Worldly Asceticism

A. CalvinismThe Father in heaven of the New
Testament, so human and understanding, who rejoices over the repentance
of a sinner as a woman over the lost piece of silver she has found, is
gone. His place has been taken by a transcendental being, beyond the
reach of human understanding, who with His quite incomprehensible
decrees has decided the fate of every individual and regulated the
tiniest details of the cosmos from eternity.15In its extreme inhumanity this doctrine
[Calvinism] must above all have had one consequence for the life of a
generation which surrended to its magnificient consistency. That was a
feeling of unprecedented inner loneliness of the single individual. 16
In what was for the man of the age of the Reformation the most important
thing in life, his eternal salvation, he was forced to follow his path
alone to meet a destiny which had been decreed for him from eternity. No
one could help him. No priest.... . No Sacraments... . No Church... .
This, the complete elimination of salvation through the Church and the
sacraments (which was in Lutheranism by no means developed to its final
conclusions), was what formed the absolutely decisive difference from
Catholicism.That great historic process in the
development of religions, the elimination of magic from the world 19
which had begun with the old Hebrew prophets and, in conjunction with
Hellenistic scientific thought, had repudiated all magical means to
salvation as superstition and sin, came here to its logical conclusion.
The genuine Puritan even rejected all signs of religious ceremony at the
grave and buried his nearest and dearest without song or ritual in
order that no superstition, no trust in the effects of magical and
sacramental forces on salvation, should creep in.Combined with the harsh doctrines of the
absolute transcendentality of God and the corruption of everything
pertaining to the flesh, this inner isolation of the individual
contains, on the one hand, the reason for the entirely negative attitude
of Puritanism to all the sensuous and emotional elements in culture and
in religion, because they are of no use toward salvation and promote
sentimental illusions and idolatrous superstitions. Thus it provides a
basis for a fundamental antagonism to sensuous culture of all kinds. 21
On the other hand, it forms one of the roots of that disillusioned and
pessimistically inclined individualism 22 which can even to-day be
identified in the national characters and the institutions of the
peoples with a Puritan past, in such a striking contrast to the quite
different spectacles through which the Enlightenment later looked upon
men. [...] Only God should be your confindant. 25 In striking contrast
to Lutheranism, this attitude toward life was also connected with the
quiet disappearance of the private confession... . [...] The means to a
periodical discharge of the emotional sense of sin 26 was done away
with.In spite of the necessity of membership
in the true Church 27 for salvation, the Calvinist's intercourse with
his God was carried on in deep spiritual isolation. To see the specific
results 28 of this peculiar atmosphere, it is only necessary to read
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress., 29 by far the most widely read book of the
whole Puritan literature.Note: he is quoting someone else here: "Love of their native city higher than the fear for the salvation of their souls".He [Calvin] rejects in principle the
assumption that one can learn from the conduct of others whether they
are chosen or damned. ....The elect thus are and remain God's invisible
Church.On the one hand it is held to be an
absolute duty to consider oneself chosen, and to combat all doubts as
temptations of the devil, 45 since lack of self-confidence is the result
of insufficient faith, hence of imperfect grace. The exhortation of the
apostle to make fast one's own call is here interpreted as a duty to
attain certainty of one's own election and justification in the daily
struggle of life. In the place of the humble sinners to whom Luther
promises grace if they trust themselves to God in penitent faith are
bred those self-confident saints 46 whom we can rediscover in the hard
Puritan merchants of the heroic age of capitalism and in isolated
instances down to the present. On the other hand, in order to attain
that self-confidence intense worldly activity is recommended as the most
suitable means. 47 It and it alone disperses religious doubts and gives
the certainty of grace. [to which should be added, perfect humility...]F.o.e., 'unio mystica'The highest religious experience which
the Lutheran faith strives to attain, especially as it developed in the
course of the seventeenth century, is the mystic union with the deity.
49 As the name itself, which is unknown to the Reformed faith in this
[Calivinist] form, suggests, it is a feeling of actual absorption in the
deity, that of a real entrance of the divine into the soul of the
believer.F.o.e., 'poenitentia quotidiana' (daily penance)A real penetration of the human soul by
the divine was made impossible by the absolute transcendentality of God
compared to the flesh: finitum non est capax infinite.The religious believer can make himself
sure of his state of grace either in that he feels himself to be the
vessel of the Holy Spirit or the tool of the divine will. In the former
case his religious life tends to mysticism and emotionalism, in the
latter to ascetic action; Luther stood close to the former type,
Calvinism belonged definitely to the latter. The Calvinist also wanted
to be saved sola fide. But since Calvin viewed all pure feelings and
emotions, no matter how exalted they might seem to be, with suspicion,
51 faith had to be proved by its objective results in order to provide a
firm foundation for the certainty of salvation.If we now ask further, by what fruits
the Calvinist thought himself able to identify true faith? the answer
is: by a type of Christian conduct which served to increase the glory of
God. [...] ...to augment the glory of God by real, and not merely
apparent, good works. It was through the consciousness that his conduct,
at least in its fundamental character and constant ideal, rested on a
power 56 within himself working for the glory of God; that it is not
only willed of God but rather done by God 57 that he attained the
highest good towards which this religion strove, the certainty of
salvation. 58 ...Thus, however useless good works might be as a means of
attaining salvation, for even the elect remain beings of the flesh, and
everything they do falls infinitely short of divine standards,
nevertheless, they are indispensable as a sign of election. 60 They are
the technical means, not of purchasing salvation, but of getting rid of
the fear of damnation. In this sense they are occasionally referred to
as directly necessary for salvation 61 or the possessio salutis is made
conditional on them. 62In practice this means that God helps
those who help themselves. 63 Thus the Calvinist, as it is sometimes
put, himself creates 64 his own salvation, or, as would be more correct,
the conviction of it. But this creation cannot, as in Catholicism,
consist in a gradual accumulation of individual good works to one's
credit, but rather in a systematic self-control which at every moment
stands before the inexorable alternative, chosen or damned.It is common knowledge that Lutherans
have again and again accused this line of thought, which was worked out
in the Reformed Churches and sects with increasing clarity, 65 of
reversion to the doctrine of salvation by works. 66The rationalization of the world, the
elimination of magic as a means of salvation, 69 the Catholics had not
carried nearly so far as the Puritans (and before them the Jews) had
done. To the Catholic70 the absolution of his Church was a compensation
for his own imperfection. The priest was a magician who performed the
miracle of transubstantiation, and who held the key to eternal life in
his hand. One could turn to him in grief and penitence. He dispensed
atonement, hope of grace, certainty of forgiveness, and thereby granted
release from that tremendous tension to which the Calvinist was doomed
by an inexorable fate, admitting of no mitigation. For him such friendly
and human comforts did not exist. He could not hope to atone for hours
of weakness or of thoughtlessness by increased good will at other times,
as the Catholic or even the Lutheran could. The God of Calvinism
demanded of his believers not single good works, but a life of good
works combined into a unified system. 71 There was no place for the very
human Catholic cycle of sin, repentance, atonement, release, followed
by renewed sin.The moral conduct of the average man was
thus deprived of its planless and unsystematic character and subjected
to a consistent method for conduct as a whole. It is no accident that
the name of Methodists stuck to the participants in the last great
revival of Puritan ideas in the eighteenth century... .

[Christian asceticism] had developed a systematic method of rational conduct with the purpose of overcoming the status naturae, to free man from the power of irrational impulses and his dependence on the world and on nature. It attempted to subject man to the supremacy of a purposeful will,77 to bring his actions under constant self-control with a careful consideration of their ethical consequences. Thus it trained the monk, objectively, as a worker in the service of the kingdom of God, and thereby further, subjectively, assured the salvation of his soul. This active self-control, which formed the end of the exercitia of St. Ignatius and of the rational the protestant ethic and the 72 spirit of capitalism monastic virtues everywhere,78 was also the most important practical ideal of Puritanism.79 [...] The Puritan, like every rational type of asceticism, tried to enable a man to maintain and act upon his constant motives, especially those which it taught him itself, against the emotions. In this formal psychological sense of the term it tried to make him into a personality. Contrary to many popular ideas, the end of this asceticism was to be able to lead an alert, intelligent life: the most urgent task the destruction of spontaneous, impulsive enjoyment, the most important means was to bring order into the conduct of its adherents. All these important points are emphasized in the rules of Catholic monasticism as strongly83 as in the principles of conduct of the Calvinists.84

On the other hand, the difference of the Calvinistic from the mediæval asceticism is evident. It consisted in the disappearance of the consilia evangelica [The Evangelical Counsels] and the accompanying transformation of asceticism to activity within the world. It is not as though Catholicism had restricted the methodical life to monastic cells. [...] The tertiary order of St. Francis was, for instance, a powerful attempt in the direction of an ascetic penetration of everyday life, and, as we know, by no means the only one. [...] ...the practical use made of certain institutions of the Church, above all of indulgences, inevitably counteracted the tendencies toward systematic worldly asceticism. For that reason it was not felt at the time of the Reformation to be merely an unessential abuse, but one of the most fundamental evils of the Church. But the most important thing was the fact that the man who, par excellence, lived a rational life in the religious sense was, and remained, alone the monk. Thus asceticism, the more strongly it gripped an individual, simply served to drive him farther away from everyday life, because the holiest task was definitely to surpass all worldly morality.86 Luther... had repudiated that tendency, and Calvinism simply took this over from him.87 Sebastian Franck struck the central characteristic of this type of religion when he saw the significance of the Reformation in the fact that now every Christian had to be a monk all his life.

The religious life of the saints... was-
the most important point- no longer lived outside the world in monastic
communities, but within the world and its institutions. This
rationalization of conduct within this world, but for the sake of the
world beyond, was the consequence of the concept of calling of ascetic
Protestantism.Christian asceticism, at first fleeing
from the world into solitude, had already ruled the world which it had
renounced from the monastery and through the Church. But it had, on the
whole, left the naturally spontaneous character of daily life in the
world untouched. Now it strode into the market-place of life, slammed
the door of the monastery behind it, and undertook to penetrate just
that daily routine of life with its methodicalness, to fashion it into a
life in the world, but neither of nor for this world.

Chapter V

Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism

Mediaeval ethics not only tolerated begging but actually glorified it in the mendicant orders. [...] It remained for Puritan Asceticism to take part in the severe English Poor Relief Legislation which fundamentally changed the situation. The Puritan wanted to work in a calling; we are forced to do so. For when asceticism was carried out of monastic cells into everyday life, and began to dominate worldly morality, it did its part in building the tremendous cosmos of the modern economic order. This order is now bound to the technical and economic conditions of machine production which to-day determine the lives of all the individuals who are born into this mechanism, not only those directly concerned with economic acquisition, with irrestible force.

Since asceticism undertook to remodel the world and to work out its ideals in the world, material goods have gained an increasing and finally an inexorable power over the lives of men as at no previous period in history.